A “thanks” to the Fishing Jones blog for joining us in our fight to protect our legal stream access rights.
Some would say this battle is simply a local issue, but of course, it’s not. What’s being tried here has been tried other places (Donny Beaver? Montana?), and while those behind the threats to your stream access rights might differ from region to region, the goal is always the same:
Take something that legally belongs to the public — and put it to their exclusive, private use.
[tags]fly fishing, stream access, fishing jones[/tags]
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This kind of stuff affects anyone anywhere who enjoys any sort of activity having to do with the water–it’s not just a local fishing issue. You see it pop up all over the country with people trying to bend the rules and change designations to benefit a specific interest.
In trying to find out more about this, I came across an informative page about river law from a site called adventuresports.com.
Here’s the link:
http://www.adventuresports.com/river/nors/us-law-who-owns.htm
Note point 25:
Courts have upheld government authority to regulate or prohibit mining in rivers, because of the damage it can do to publicly-owned river resources.
And point 30:
…Consequently, various government agencies make provisional determinations about whether or not various rivers qualify as navigable. But they can’t make definitive rulings, only the courts can. If a government agency tells you a certain river isn’t legally navigable, it’s only their opinion, it’s not the law (except in the very few cases where there actually has been a court ruling.)… Pete(Quote)